{"id":46067,"date":"2018-11-27T20:47:00","date_gmt":"2018-11-28T02:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=46067"},"modified":"2018-11-27T20:47:00","modified_gmt":"2018-11-28T02:47:00","slug":"spanish-sports-minister-apologizes-for-canceling-of-water-polo-match-against-israel-due-to-boycott","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/spanish-sports-minister-apologizes-for-canceling-of-water-polo-match-against-israel-due-to-boycott\/","title":{"rendered":"Spanish sports minister apologizes for canceling of water polo match against Israel due to boycott"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Israeli player Lior Ben David, front, shown at a match at the Baku 2015 European Games at the Water Polo Arena in Baku, Azerbaijan, June 15, 2015. (Matthias Hangst\/Getty Images for BEGOC)<\/p>\n<p>(JTA) \u2014 Spain\u2019s minister for sports apologized for the canceling of a water polo match in Barcelona against an Israeli team due to the organizer\u2019s decision to boycott it.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_46068\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/polo.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-46068\" class=\"wp-image-46068 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/polo-300x198.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"198\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/polo-300x198.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/polo-768x506.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/polo.jpg 880w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/198;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-46068\" class=\"wp-image-46068 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/polo-300x198.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"198\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/polo-300x198.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/polo-768x506.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/polo.jpg 880w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-46068\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Israeli player Lior Ben David, front, shown at a match at the Baku 2015 European Games at the Water Polo Arena in Baku, Azerbaijan, June 15, 2015. (Matthias Hangst\/Getty Images for BEGOC)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Minister Jos\u00e9 Girao apologized to his Israeli counterpart Thursday over the canceling earlier this month of an Israeli team\u2019s match against the national women\u2019s team of Spain because the Nautical Club Molins de Rei in a suburb of Barcelona refused to host it.<\/p>\n<p>Amid pressures over the refusal to host the match, organizers offered the Israeli team the choice to play but to refrain from displaying its national flag, in violation of the team\u2019s right under the charter of the Water Polo international federation. The Israeli team declined and the organizers said it had forfeited.<\/p>\n<p>But following more pressure, including by the federation, the hosts finally agreed to host the match with flags, though the stadium was mostly empty, the Israeli news site One reported.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wish to express my deepest regret for what happened,\u201d Girao wrote in a letter to Israel\u2019s Miri Regev. \u201cSpain is a state governed by law and cannot submit to such groups,\u201d he added, referencing the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. Girao said he hoped such events would not recur and that his office would \u201cdo everything in its power\u201d to resolve them, he added.<\/p>\n<p>More than 50 Spanish municipalities have endorsed the principles of BDS, the highest number of any European country.<\/p>\n<p>The Spanish judiciary in recent years has cracked down on the practice, which two high courts in Spain have defined as discrimination.<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Spanish%20sports%20minister%20apologizes%20for%20canceling%20of%20water%20polo%20match%20against%20Israel%20due%20to%20boycott\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,1491],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46067"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46067"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46069,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46067\/revisions\/46069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}